Concussion moves survey

[sk8lady]

The only concussion I've had came from coaching hockey and getting hit under the chin with a kid's helmeted head. (And possibly some minor concussions from walloping myself in the head with car doors and hatchbacks, but let's not talk about that right now.)

One of my adult students fell trying to either skate backwards or do a 2 foot turn and concussed herself. She wears a helmet now (luckily, since she fell and hit her head again yesterday. Ouch.)

[slcbelle]

I'm in a ski helmet 3-5 days a week so, now that I'm taking up skating again, I can't imagine doing so without head protection.  I know the chance of hitting my head is remote but a brain or skull injury can be life changing and just isn't worth the risk to me.  So, I bought the Ribcap Jackson:



http://www.ribcap.ch/en/online-shop/

It's super cute on.  Like a riding helmet but soft and warm.

This is me wearing mine:

http://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/423250_10150812420959782_617574781_12586899_608605131_n.jpg

[AgnesNitt]

Better dorky than brain damaged.

[Jennymd]

I had 3 concussions on the ice last year (very unlucky!). 2 of them happened the exact same way which was during wind-up for a spin, and the 3rd I tangled my blades in a mohawk. :S

For 2 wind-up ones, I was skating on the right back inside edge, about to step/push into a spin, when I caught the tail of my blade in a divot in the ice and my feet came flying up in the air from underneath me and I landed smack on the back of my head - major ouch!!

[karne]

I can now honestly say after the other Friday that I've had a concussion from skating.

But it's a little embarassing to admit I tripped on my toepick doing fowards crossovers.

[VAsk8r]

I'll disclose my identity by sharing this story, since I think every adult skater in Virginia and possibly DC and Maryland has heard it already, but oh well.

I fell last year on a left outside 3-turn entrance to a flip jump. I went down so hard I couldn't catch myself, and I smacked the left side of my forehead and my nose on the ice. Nose was bruised. My forehead took 17 stitches from a facial plastic surgeon.

No concussion, though. I was excited because I'd never gotten stitches before. I was back on the ice three days later and attempted flips again during that session. (Possibly a symptom for the Adult Onset Skating Syndrome thead.) The scar has faded to a very thin line.

Both my coach and I felt the fall was a freak accident. I'd been doing 3-turns for probably three years, and I'd never come close to hitting my head on a fall before. There's another adult skater at my rink who fell and hit his head a couple of months before I did, and a little boy who had just started taking skating lessons fell last fall. The adult skater took several stitches, and I think the little boy had his cut glued.

My other "concussion move" is a slip. I fell over backwards on one last fall and got whiplash. That was three days of rest and ice and heat and was actually much more unpleasant and painful than the head wound.

I've never had an actual concussion that I know of.

[slcbelle]

Yowza!  That scares me.  Sorry to hear about your injuries Jennymp, karne, and VAsk8ter.  That's why I just can't imagine skating without head protection.

[Adultsk8r509]

My first lesson after returning to the ice this year from a 32 year hiatus involved showing my coach what I did (and didn't know) how to do.
I knew I got dizzy spinning and had not regained control from when I was younger .. centering ... bad combination.  I was doing a simple scratch spin
and got too far back on my blade and down I went.  It felt as though I blacked out because I didn't even brace the fall.  I hit the back of my head at the base
of my skull right where my PLASTIC CLAW CLIP was holding my hair up.  I was lucky those little teeth didn't puncture my head.  It broke into a zillion pieces.  I sat there
for what seemed like an eternity... 5 minutes before I got up.  I am sure I suffered a slight concussion as I was getting pretty queasy, but no blood... at least none that
I found.

Needless to say, the first thing my coach said to me after "Are you ok?" was NEVER wear hair clips skating!!!

[AgnesNitt]

I had a concussion from being thrown from a horse refusing a jump. I hit the ground so hard it cracked open the helmet. I ended up in the emergency room being evaluated for head trauma. But, basically, I walked away from it.

[Adultsk8r509]

I had a concussion from being thrown from a horse refusing a jump. I hit the ground so hard it cracked open the helmet. I ended up in the emergency room being evaluated for head trauma. But, basically, I walked away from it.

That's why I sold my horse in the spring ... sniff sniff

[slcbelle]

Ribcap...gooooooooood.

[treesprite]

The only time I ever hit my head (my face actually!) was when I leaned sideways going into a spin.  I hit so hard it echoed in the rink and everyone thought I broke my cheekbone (I didn't).

[Sk8Dreams]

Concern over head injuries kept me in long hair for many years.  I wound it around and clipped up in back, which provided a very nice cushion, which was tested more than once.  Since I lost my hair to chemo, and gotten it back again, I'm really enjoying the ease of short hair, and trying not to worry about losing that natural cushion.  I like the look of the Ribcap, but I think it would be too hot for me.

[jjane45]

Yesterday in class we learned a girl at our rink suffered severe concussion from jump collision. Hospitalized, in and out of coma... Really really sad it happened to her, it is a dangerous sport and skaters deserve good head protection!

My face made direct contact with the ice twice since I last posted in this thread... One fluke fall from skating backwards in a MITF pattern, blades hit the boards and I went flying face down, cheek swollen right away and bruised for a week. Another was... no surprise, 8 step mohawk! Fell over something going CCW and left cheek scraped the ice very very lightly...

[Doubletoe]

My first attempt at back cross strokes landed me on the back of my head and in the ER for a few stitches, but fortunately no concussion.  Wish the instructor had told me to keep deep ankle bend and lean a little to the skating side and NOT back!

I also hit my head once on a double loop attempt before I really knew what I was doing (but no stitches or concussion).  Chest-over-knee-over-toes on the takeoff edge has been my loop mantra ever since.

I hit my chin on the ice and had to get 4 stitches just from stepping onto a LFO edge from a RBI crossover edge.  Note to self:  If you bend deeply and keep your feet apart, you will not have the clink of death!

I agree that the 8-step mohawk sequence can be dangerous.  I never hit my head on it, but I did catch the heel of my blade twice when I forgot to point my toes as I placed my foot down on the backward step of the mohawk.  I was so smart that I did this twice in the same week!  I fell on the same hip and it was the biggest, ugliest, bumpiest bruise I'd ever gotten.

[techskater]

Yesterday in class we learned a girl at our rink suffered severe concussion from jump collision. Hospitalized, in and out of coma... Really really sad it happened to her, it is a dangerous sport and skaters deserve good head protection!

I know the circumstances surrounding one of these and I would say coach's fault in that case

[icedancer]

Our rink just started carrying the Ice Halo.  Last spring one of the skaters - a very good skater who is, well, not young - fell with her coach on a dance and cracked her head.  She was in the hospital for weeks and it was really touch and go for a while.

One of our skaters who is a judge started wearing the Ice Halo last year and I thought it was pretty cool.  Now that the rink is selling them there are at least 10 people wearing them and I just got one last weekend.  It feels fine, looks stylin' and really - it is your head after all and you have to protect it!!!

[AgnesNitt]

I know the circumstances surrounding one of these and I would say coach's fault in that case

Can you tell us the circumstances while being circumspect? As a teaching moment for the rest of us?

[Isk8NYC]

I haven't looked at this myself yet, but icoachskating has an article about concussions:

http://www.icoachskating.com/site.php/spgs/read/concussion_testing2

[Kim to the Max]

In August I am pretty sure I had a mild concussion (no, I didn't go to the doctor, but saw a friend who is an EMT/health care professional that evening). I was doing the back outside double 3, to back inside rocker/rocker power pulls from Senior Moves. I went to do the rocker/rocker and must have been too far back on my blade and my feet flew out from under me and suddenly I was falling. My head hit the ice twice and apparently sounded like a bowling ball. The other coaches weren't going to let me stand up, but when you are laying on the ice in a tank top, it gets kinda' cold, so I wanted my jacket. I felt really bad for Coach #2 who was giving me a lesson at the time. She was pretty worried (for good reason). I went over to a friend's house to sit (since I live alone, I thought it would be better to go there than go home...if I didn't go there, I would have gone to Coach #1's house who lives just around the corner from me). Coach #2 said that if I wasn't going to go to a friend's house, she would have been coming home with me to make sure I was okay.

[techskater]

Can you tell us the circumstances while being circumspect? As a teaching moment for the rest of us?

New skater at the rink (Prejuvenile level) in lesson doing back crossovers into double Sal at coach's direction while Senior lady was zooming down the ice into 3Lo-2T in her program (music running). She was leaving the ice for the 3Lo (so in a blind spot) when the PJ kid smacked right into her (while doing back crossovers) and both crashed to the ice. Coach didn't say anything (no look out, nothing) as coach was distracted chit chatting while PJ skater was setting up the 2S and neglected to tell skater who's music it was or who to be watching for/pattern to avoid (and Senior lady is also said coach's student, so coach would know).  PJ ended up getting air lifted to children's memorial hospital with head trauma and a busted ear drum.  Senior lady had a couple cuts and scrapes and a couple days of "the spooks" with people in a 10 foot radius...

[jjane45]

I hope people are learning a precious lesson from the accident. Also we need a sash for skater in program that actually is at the boards for freestyle sessions. I've been bringing my own for running programs, somehow the rink's disappears very fast.

[techskater]

Don't have one at my rink.   

[sarahspins]

Our rink recently got a set of these vests from ikea instead of using sashes (they come in really little kid sizes too for a dollar less)... they work great, no confusion over who's music is playing and they are definitely very visible.  When they first arrived at the rink earlier this summer there were some negative comments from some of the kids and parents because they claimed these were "ugly" and "uncomfortable" (they're not unless you grab one that is way too big or way too small), but since they worked so well everyone has stopped complaining.

[jjane45]

Can you tell us the circumstances while being circumspect? As a teaching moment for the rest of us?

Not on how it happened, but two sources mentioned direct contact of head and blades as the consequence of the fall...